Djinn_in_Tonic
2008-07-03, 10:02 PM
*The Ima-Djinnation Station*
A Moderately Comprehensive Guide to Avatar Creation by Djinn in Tonic
Introduction
The Djinn here. Many of you may know me from the Iron Avatar contests or the Avatar Request Board, where I’m rather active at strange and unpredictable times. I recently was reminded that I wrote a guide to making avatars in Inkscape a while ago, and, looking at my old thread, I was irritated by how unprofessional both it and my results looked. So I decided to re-do it as best as I can.
Now a word of warning: The Djinn does not do avatars in the traditional Order of the Stick style. My personal style varies from close to OOTS to wildly different, depending on the subject at hand and my mood at the time, so this guide won’t necessarily teach you to draw proper OOTS characters. It should, however, be easily adaptable, and much of the information contained here should be compatible.
I use Inkscape for my drawings, and I’m going to assume at least some level of competency in this guide. If you’re just beginning to use Inkscape, I’d recommend looking at Trazoi’s Guide (http://trazoi.net/tutorials/inkscape/oots/index.html), which offers a more beginner-friendly explanation of how each step is accomplished (and a more traditional OOTS style to boot). However, it deals with only basic construction, which I am attempting to go beyond.
Anyway, enough rambling. Let’s go on to the guide itself, beginning with step 1: Pose and Positioning.
-The Djinn
*****
Chapter 1: Pose and Positioning
The first step in designing an avatar, once the initial idea phase is complete, is to determine a pose, as this will alter every aspect of your design. Given that you only have a 117x117 pixel canvas, there is a limit to what you can fit, and your plan is crucial to figuring out exactly how much detail you can include.
The following sections will not include a how-to at this point, as the purpose of the Pose and Positioning chapter is to simply get you thinking about the basic design of your avatar before you go about attempting to construct it.
1-1 The Basic Pose:
The easiest pose is the simple head-on view, where the figure stands with his head and body turned to directly face the viewer. This allows you to fit the entire figure in a good amount of detail, and shows the entire body. Variations of the limb placement or figure size can make this more interesting, but there is a limit to the possibilities with just one pose.
Below are a few examples of the Basic Pose. The red head raised slightly above the normal head is an approximation for those who, like the Djinn, occasionally feel like putting a neck on their characters. Feel free to ignore it if you so desire.
Image 1-1: The Basic Pose
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample1-BasicPose.png
----------------------------------------
Image 1-2: The Basic Pose (Winged*)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample2-BasicWings.png
----------------------------------------
Image 1-3: The Basic Pose (Spread Wings*)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample3-BasicSpreadWings.png
----------------------------------------
*A Note on Wings: Adding wings to your avatar can be impressive, but this comes at a price. You have to carefully manage your space and the wing position to end up with an avatar large enough to see. It’s best to avoid widely spread wings in avatars, as these eat up large amounts of horizontal space and require that the avatar be tiny to accommodate the wingspan. Furled wings or an character in a Dramatic Pose (Section 1-2) that allows the wings to be angled backwards are better choices for avatars. Sigatars, however, are another manner. Feel free to go wild when creating one of these.
*****
1-2 Dramatic Poses:
Dramatic Poses can give your avatar more character, or grant you greater space to work with detail.
A crouching character, for example, takes up significantly less vertical space, allowing for a greater image size and greater detail. A character braced against the frame of the image looks like he or she is clinging to a wall. Leaps and lunges provide dramatic images and fantastic opportunities to use foreshortening. Of course, these are all more difficult than the traditional Basic Pose, but that’s the price you have to pay.
A good source to look for pose inspiration is DeviantArt’s stock photo database, located HERE (http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/stockart/model/?order=9) (Warning…as DeviantArt is an open community some images may be R-rated. Browse at your own risk.). Opening the image in Inkscape and roughing in some guidelines can really help get that difficult pose exactly right.
Below are a few examples of Dramatic Poses. The head size varies slightly, due to whatever seemed best at the time of creation. For traditional OOTS style avatars, make sure the head is wider than the torso.
Image 1-4: Dramatic Pose I
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample4-AdvancedForeshortening.png
----------------------------------------
Image 1-5: Dramatic Pose II
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample5-RelaxingFigure.png
----------------------------------------
Image 1-6: Dramatic Pose III
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample7-DramaticPose2.png
----------------------------------------
Image 1-7: Dramatic Pose IV
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample6-DramaticPose1.png
----------------------------------------
*****
Chapter 2: Roughing Out the Figure
So you’ve got your cool idea, and you know vaguely how you want it to look. Now we need to plot exactly how it’s going to be positioned.
To make this more visual, I’m going to use some photos to get pose ideas. The concept here is simple: simply make a rough outline of the torso and limb positions. As a side note, most OOTS style avatars have different proportions that an actual human, so it often becomes necessary to shorten the torso or limbs when you’ve finished tracing the image.
A large circle takes the place of the head, but be careful not to simply center the head on the circle. Because the OOTS head is just a circle, it’s harder to show varying head positions without careful placement. Determine which way the image’s head is angled and emphasize it a little bit, as otherwise your character will not have the same posture.
It helps to set the stock image transparency to around 65-75% when tracing, as it makes your dark lines more visible against a dark background, and also makes them easier to distinguish from the image itself.
Here are some rough sketches and the corresponding Avatar. Note how the avatar does not necessarily have the same dimensions as the sketch—as stated, it is often necessary to shrink the torso or limbs to compensate for the unrealistic art style.
Image 2-2: The Skateboarder (Rough Sketch)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample2-1--Skateboarderwiremodel.png
----------------------------------------
Image 2-2: The Skateboarder (Finished Avatar)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample2-1--Skateboarderfinished.png
----------------------------------------
Image 2-3: The Swashbuckler (Rough Sketch)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample3-1RoughingtheFigure-incomple.png
----------------------------------------
Image 2-4: The Swashbuckler (Finished Avatar)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample3-1RoughingtheFigure-Complete.png----------------------------------------
A Moderately Comprehensive Guide to Avatar Creation by Djinn in Tonic
Introduction
The Djinn here. Many of you may know me from the Iron Avatar contests or the Avatar Request Board, where I’m rather active at strange and unpredictable times. I recently was reminded that I wrote a guide to making avatars in Inkscape a while ago, and, looking at my old thread, I was irritated by how unprofessional both it and my results looked. So I decided to re-do it as best as I can.
Now a word of warning: The Djinn does not do avatars in the traditional Order of the Stick style. My personal style varies from close to OOTS to wildly different, depending on the subject at hand and my mood at the time, so this guide won’t necessarily teach you to draw proper OOTS characters. It should, however, be easily adaptable, and much of the information contained here should be compatible.
I use Inkscape for my drawings, and I’m going to assume at least some level of competency in this guide. If you’re just beginning to use Inkscape, I’d recommend looking at Trazoi’s Guide (http://trazoi.net/tutorials/inkscape/oots/index.html), which offers a more beginner-friendly explanation of how each step is accomplished (and a more traditional OOTS style to boot). However, it deals with only basic construction, which I am attempting to go beyond.
Anyway, enough rambling. Let’s go on to the guide itself, beginning with step 1: Pose and Positioning.
-The Djinn
*****
Chapter 1: Pose and Positioning
The first step in designing an avatar, once the initial idea phase is complete, is to determine a pose, as this will alter every aspect of your design. Given that you only have a 117x117 pixel canvas, there is a limit to what you can fit, and your plan is crucial to figuring out exactly how much detail you can include.
The following sections will not include a how-to at this point, as the purpose of the Pose and Positioning chapter is to simply get you thinking about the basic design of your avatar before you go about attempting to construct it.
1-1 The Basic Pose:
The easiest pose is the simple head-on view, where the figure stands with his head and body turned to directly face the viewer. This allows you to fit the entire figure in a good amount of detail, and shows the entire body. Variations of the limb placement or figure size can make this more interesting, but there is a limit to the possibilities with just one pose.
Below are a few examples of the Basic Pose. The red head raised slightly above the normal head is an approximation for those who, like the Djinn, occasionally feel like putting a neck on their characters. Feel free to ignore it if you so desire.
Image 1-1: The Basic Pose
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample1-BasicPose.png
----------------------------------------
Image 1-2: The Basic Pose (Winged*)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample2-BasicWings.png
----------------------------------------
Image 1-3: The Basic Pose (Spread Wings*)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample3-BasicSpreadWings.png
----------------------------------------
*A Note on Wings: Adding wings to your avatar can be impressive, but this comes at a price. You have to carefully manage your space and the wing position to end up with an avatar large enough to see. It’s best to avoid widely spread wings in avatars, as these eat up large amounts of horizontal space and require that the avatar be tiny to accommodate the wingspan. Furled wings or an character in a Dramatic Pose (Section 1-2) that allows the wings to be angled backwards are better choices for avatars. Sigatars, however, are another manner. Feel free to go wild when creating one of these.
*****
1-2 Dramatic Poses:
Dramatic Poses can give your avatar more character, or grant you greater space to work with detail.
A crouching character, for example, takes up significantly less vertical space, allowing for a greater image size and greater detail. A character braced against the frame of the image looks like he or she is clinging to a wall. Leaps and lunges provide dramatic images and fantastic opportunities to use foreshortening. Of course, these are all more difficult than the traditional Basic Pose, but that’s the price you have to pay.
A good source to look for pose inspiration is DeviantArt’s stock photo database, located HERE (http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/stockart/model/?order=9) (Warning…as DeviantArt is an open community some images may be R-rated. Browse at your own risk.). Opening the image in Inkscape and roughing in some guidelines can really help get that difficult pose exactly right.
Below are a few examples of Dramatic Poses. The head size varies slightly, due to whatever seemed best at the time of creation. For traditional OOTS style avatars, make sure the head is wider than the torso.
Image 1-4: Dramatic Pose I
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample4-AdvancedForeshortening.png
----------------------------------------
Image 1-5: Dramatic Pose II
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample5-RelaxingFigure.png
----------------------------------------
Image 1-6: Dramatic Pose III
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample7-DramaticPose2.png
----------------------------------------
Image 1-7: Dramatic Pose IV
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample6-DramaticPose1.png
----------------------------------------
*****
Chapter 2: Roughing Out the Figure
So you’ve got your cool idea, and you know vaguely how you want it to look. Now we need to plot exactly how it’s going to be positioned.
To make this more visual, I’m going to use some photos to get pose ideas. The concept here is simple: simply make a rough outline of the torso and limb positions. As a side note, most OOTS style avatars have different proportions that an actual human, so it often becomes necessary to shorten the torso or limbs when you’ve finished tracing the image.
A large circle takes the place of the head, but be careful not to simply center the head on the circle. Because the OOTS head is just a circle, it’s harder to show varying head positions without careful placement. Determine which way the image’s head is angled and emphasize it a little bit, as otherwise your character will not have the same posture.
It helps to set the stock image transparency to around 65-75% when tracing, as it makes your dark lines more visible against a dark background, and also makes them easier to distinguish from the image itself.
Here are some rough sketches and the corresponding Avatar. Note how the avatar does not necessarily have the same dimensions as the sketch—as stated, it is often necessary to shrink the torso or limbs to compensate for the unrealistic art style.
Image 2-2: The Skateboarder (Rough Sketch)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample2-1--Skateboarderwiremodel.png
----------------------------------------
Image 2-2: The Skateboarder (Finished Avatar)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample2-1--Skateboarderfinished.png
----------------------------------------
Image 2-3: The Swashbuckler (Rough Sketch)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample3-1RoughingtheFigure-incomple.png
----------------------------------------
Image 2-4: The Swashbuckler (Finished Avatar)
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t265/Djinn_in_Tonic/Sample3-1RoughingtheFigure-Complete.png----------------------------------------